karnioki



(No M6661.) Smeets-sheet 1. M. KARNICKI.

coFPIN.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

IVI. KARNICKI. GOPPIN.

176.676,676. Patentedfeb. 9,1697.

2 Y ,ils/VWM z 'A n f nu: wams vz-rsns co. pnuraumo., wnsmnovon, D. c.

(N6 M6661.) 3. sheets-@sheet 3.

M. KARNIGKI.

GOFFIN- v No. 676,676. Patented P66159, 1697.

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' UNTTED STATES PATENT EEICE.

MICHAEL KARNICKI, OF VARSAV, RUSSIA.

COFFIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letterslatent No. 576,676, dated February 9, 1897.

Application filed August 22, 1896. Serial No. 603,575. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, MICHAEL KARNICKI, a subject of the Emperor of Russia, residing at Warsaw, Poland, in the Empire of Russia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Coffns, of which the following is a specification.

Hyinvention has relation to a coiiin wherein the lid is provided with transparent doors or panels held down normally upon the lid against the tension of springs and adapted to be released and thrown upward from the lid upon the operation of a device located within the coflin, and in such connection it relates particularly to the construction and arrangement o f the locking and releasing devices for said doors or panels of the coflin-lid.

The principal objects of my invention are, first, to provide, in a coffin, a lid having doors or panels normally held down upon the lid under spring tension, a catch carried by said doors or panels, a keeper on the lid through which the catch is adapted to pass, a sliding bolt adapted to engage said catch when in its keeper and against the tension of a spring, a bar and projections adapted to normally lock the bolt to the catch, and a push-disk extending within the coffin and adapted, when elevated or depressed, to withdraw the bar and projections from the sliding` bolt and to release the bolt and thereby the catch from the keeper to permit the doors or panels to spring upward from the lid, and, second, to provide, in connection with the locking and releasing mechanism above described, two levers pivotally supported within the coffin and connected at one end with the locking-rod and a ring adapted when depressed to depress the free end of said levers and to thereby elevate the locking-rod.

My invention, stated ingeneral terms, consists in the locking and releasing mechanism for coffin-lids constructed and arranged in substantially the manner hereinafter described and claimed.

The nature and scope of my invention will be more fully understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, forming part hereof, in whicl p Figure l is a vertical longitudinal section of a closed coffin embodying main features of my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a portion of the same. Fig. 3 is a vertical crosssection on the line 3 3 of Fig. l; and Fig. 4 is a similar section on the line 4 4 of Fig. 1, but with the lid-plates open, while Fig. 5 is a ver tical longitudinal section on the line 5 5 of Fig. 2, together with a plan View of the same part.

The plate in the 4coffin-lid consists, preferably, of two doors or panels pp, hinged to the coffin-lid and allowing light to pass at g, one of said doors being provided on its inner face with the hereinafter-described mechanism, while the other, which overlaps said door, is provided at each end of its inner longitudinal edges with a catch or keeper p for a fastening bolt or bar b. The fastening-bolt ZJ and supports therefor are carried by one of the panels p.

The frame ct, which is iirmly connected with the lid of the coffin and on Which a sealing material d3, such as rubber, is arranged, has

an elongated keeper Ct at thehead and foot to receive the catches or keepers p' of the other panel, and is also provided with two flat springs d2, which effect the springing up of the doors p when the lockingmechanism has been released.

The catches p', when slipped through the keepers ct', are held therein by the bolts b in the following manner: The outer end of each of the bolts b is provided with a wedge-shaped piece b2 to enter the slot in each of the catches p', and the bolts b are guided by screws and slot-holes and arev always pressed inward by means of springs b', Fig. l. These bolts when the springs are compressed are directly held o r stopped, as shown in Figs. l, 3, and 5, by' projections cl2 on a bar d. Said bar carries a push-disk cl, and can be moved vertically Within certain limitsin a central opening in a bar p2.

Levers f are flexibly connected with the bar d and revolubly mounted in lugs f and in the curved brackets 7c, Figs. l and 3, and these levers engage with their outer ends a ringr, which,besides the pressure-disks d', attached to the bar d, also serves to release the catch mechanism when actuated by the aroused person.

In Fig. l the coffin is shown closed, that is to say, the bars b, arranged on one door, are

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compressed, so that the wedge-shaped ends of the bars tit into the slots of the catches or keepers p', fixed on the other door, and the bar CZ, with the pressure-disk d', is moved downward, so that the projections d2 project from the opening of the bar p2, and, as shown in Figs. 3 and 5, arrest the bolts b in their eX- tended or locking position. 1f a slight pres- Sure be made on the disk al' or a slight pull at the ring by the hands of the awakened person, (said ring being also connected with the i bar CZ by the levers f,) the bar CZ will move upward, the projections (l2, connected therey with, will move upward out of the way of the bolts l), and the latter will be drawn inward by the previouslycompressed spiral springs L b, and thus come out of the slots of the catches or keepers p' p, whereupon both doors QJ will at once spring up by the action of the fiat springs CL2 in the manner shown in Fig. Jr. The awakened person can thus rise, easily throw completely back the doors p, and then leave the coliin, when the same has been placed in a vault having a light-inlet.

If the coffin be again closed in order to be again used, it is necessary to remove the lid or upper part from the under part by unfastening the screws. The door provided with the bars Z) is then closed iirst and afterward the one having the catches or keepers p', and the bars b are pushed by hand or by means of a suitable tool so far apart as to again enter with their wedge-shaped ends b2 into the slots of the catches or keepers p', the springs b' being thus compressed. The holding of the bars in this position is lthen effected by means of the projections d2 of the bar d, which are moved out of the opening of the bar p2,

as shown in Fig. 5. The tight connection of pushed outward, the spiral springs D being l i l l i l l l the upper part or lid to the under part of the coffin can then be eifected.

Instead of the hereinbefore-described simplified mechanism being employed with a coffin having two doors in the lid it may of course be employed with the plate y), formed i in one piece and hinged to the coffin-lid. In this case the mechanism must be fixed on the free longitudinal edge of the plate and the wedge-shaped ends bb2 of the bolt or bar b may directly enter suitable slots in the frame a, the catches p being dispensed with.

Having thus described the nature and objects of my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is l. In a coffin, a lid provided with one or more panels held to the lid against the tension of a spring, a catch carried by said panel or panels, a bolt sliding on the under side of one of said panels and adapted to engage the keeper, a keeper on the coffin-lid through which the catch of the panel is adapted to pass, a spring adapted to retract the bolt 'from the keeper, a rod adapted to hold the bolt in locking position against the tension of said bolt-spring and a push-disk adapted when elevated or depressed to release the rod from the bolt and thereby to permit the bolt to slide out of engagement with the catch to permit of the withdrawal of the panel and catch from the keeper of the lid, substantially as and for the purposes described.

2. In a cofiin, a lid having one or more panels, held down upon the lid against the tension of a spring, mechanism for locking the panels together and to the lid, a rod adapted when elevated or depressed to release the locking mechanism, two levers each connected at one end to the rod, and a ring secured to the free end of said levers and adapted when depressed to elevate the other ends of said levers and thereby to elevate the rod and release the locking mechanism, substantially as and for the purposes described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

MICHAEL KARNICKI.

Witnesses:

MARJAN WA'roWsKI, KYETON STLoDowsKI. 

